NA speaker to summon PTI parliamentarians ‘one by one’ to verify resignations

• National Assembly also responds to Shah Mahmood Qureshi's letter.
• Speaker to accept resignations "one by one".
• PTI lawmakers decide to get resignations verified in person.

ISLAMABAD: After the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) decided to have its parliamentarians' resignations verified in person, the National Assembly Secretariat Thursday notified that Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf will again summon the party's MNAs in his chamber one by one.

PTI's members of the National Assembly will be called in for verification of their resignations in pursuance of "Paragraph (b) of Sub-Rule (2) of Rule 43 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in NA, 2007".

The NA secretariat also responded to PTI Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi's letter which he wrote on December 15, according to an official statement.

The NA speaker received a letter from Qureshi for an appointment for putting across PTI’s request for acceptance of all resignations and it would be responded to the due course after careful consideration.

The speaker had said that PTI lawmakers convey messages to him not to accept their resignations.

Earlier this week, the PTI decided that its lawmakers would take their written resignations to the speaker in person and ask him to verify them. The party's sources confirmed that their 123 MNAs take their resignations on December 22.

The Imran Khan-led party's MNAs were earlier invited by the speaker from June 6 to 10 for verification of their resignations but none of them turned up.

In July this year, the speaker accepted 11 resignations of PTI members under Article 64(1) of the Constitution of Pakistan. Raja had de-sealed the resignations to decide their fate according to the Constitution, law and rules.

The development came several weeks after the party's lawmakers tendered their resignations en masse after Imran Khan's government was ousted through a no-confidence motion in April.